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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through 35-39.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which was described as Mencken's earliest memory?
(a) Swatting flies with his brother in the kitchen.
(b) Getting bitten by a snake.
(c) Attending a speech of William Jennings Bryan.
(d) Watching a carnival of the Order of Orioles.

2. What does Mencken make synonymous with democracy in "A Blind Spot"?
(a) Puritanism.
(b) Agnosticism.
(c) Totalitarianism.
(d) Hedonism.

3. Why did Mencken curse those who translated the Bible into English?
(a) They made many factual errors.
(b) They made a host of grammatical errors.
(c) They made the prose overly flowery and beautiful.
(d) They misinterpreted the principles of Jesus Christ.

4. How was Theodore Dreiser like Joseph Conrad, according to Mencken?
(a) Both men were inherently optimistic.
(b) They both had a love of pirate adventures and the sea life.
(c) They both seemed to hate women.
(d) Both men shared an innate pessimism.

5. How did Mencken describe the music of Chopin?
(a) "Two embalmers at work upon a minor poet."
(b) "Silver macaroni, exquisitely tangled."
(c) A dozen wind chimes in a hurricane."
(d) "Genesis I, I"

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Mencken describe the music of Bach?

2. Which was NOT a reason Mencken used in his assessment that houses are ugly in "The Libido for the Ugly"?

3. Why does the typical man have a poor conception of beauty?

4. What was the subject of "A Good Man Gone Wrong"?

5. According to "Quid Est Veritas?," what kind of religion professes to know God exactly and completely?

(see the answer key)

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